


Final 'Tail' of Zabimaru

by junko



Series: 'Tails' of Zabimaru [19]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-21
Updated: 2012-09-21
Packaged: 2017-11-14 18:16:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/518134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junko/pseuds/junko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the story comes to a close, Renji finds himself back in the headmaster's office once again, awaiting a decision....</p>
            </blockquote>





	Final 'Tail' of Zabimaru

A dozen or so instructors were arguing over Renji. After the incident in Professor Nakamura’s office, he’d been hauled directly to the headmaster’s. Apparently, his reistsu signature was already easily recognized because, as they made their march across campus, more and more instructors came along to find out what was going on.

No one could believe it.

Had Renji really pulled a weapon on an instructor? And, if so, where did it come from? What about the claim that the katana had actually been no normal sword at all, but the materialization of a zanpaktō?

As Renji stood in front of Headmaster Gengorō Ōnabara’s desk, he tried to stay focused on staring straight ahead and breathing calmly. He still couldn’t quite get over Nakamura’s insult to the people of the Rukongai. He’d basically called every single soul living outside the walls of the Seireitei nothing more than trash in need of recycling. It bothered Renji for a lot of reasons, the worst of which was Nakamura’s statement that the people in the Seireitei *intentionally* ignored their pain and the suffering, because they considered those people inferior due to a lack of karmic evolution or some other bullshit.

Even if that were true, people were people, damn it. You didn’t turn your back on somebody in pain. How the fuck could anyone who did that be considered *more* evolved rather than less?

What the hell was Renji doing in Academy if that was a lesson he was supposed to accept? Once he graduated and signed on to the Court Guard, he was going to be expected to uphold all laws and traditions of the Soul Society. He would become his _duty_ to turn his back to the place he came from and to fight and die to protect Seireitei from all invaders—even his own people.

Maybe expulsion wasn’t such a bad thing. Renji had heard that word bandied about during the argument that raged around him. He’d been dreading the idea since the moment he stepped through the forbidding Academy doors, but, the truth was, he’d come to school for only one thing: Zabimaru.

Now Renji knew that even if he left here, he would still have Zabimaru.

So, fuck them. They could decide whatever they wanted. The only thing he’d regret if they kicked him out was Rukia. She’d already gone on ahead, and he’d wanted so desperately to follow her. 

But then he heard someone say something that shook his resolve. “If it’s true, that he can manifest his zanpaktō, we can’t just expel the boy. It would be beyond dangerous and irresponsible to dump someone with that kind of power back in the Rukongai. We have to lock him up in the Maggot’s Nest.”

Right.

Of course.

Renji stared harder at the spot he’d picked on the wall, breathing in, and then, carefully, out. He’d been wondering why there were never any ronins, no rogue shinigami who’d become disillusioned with life in the Seireitei, or who had decided to take up the sword to protect the downtrodden. This was why it was supposed to be a secret. This was why Captain Kyōraku had told him that no one could know where zanpaktō came from. Because, if the average citizen from the Rukongai knew he or she could pull a weapon right out of their own spiritual energy, there’d be a bloody goddamn revolution. 

“This is insane! We can’t consider anything so extreme,” said Renji’s writing tutor, a gentle man with a tendency to wring his hands when he was nervous. “Abarai is a good student. I’m not even sure why we’re talking about expulsion or incarceration at all. I fail to even see what he’s done that’s so horrible. Okay, so a weapon was present, but as far as I understand no one was even threatened with violence.” 

“In fact, given what Mr. Renji just demonstrated,” came a smooth, familiar voice at the door, “It seems to me a better solution is graduation.”

Everyone turned to see Captain Kyōraku, who leaned against the door frame casually. His arms were crossed in front of his chest, and his hands tucked into the sleeves of his haori. The straw traveling hat was tipped down, like he’d been taking a nap while listening to the squabble. He lifted it now with a broad smile and a wink to Renji.

“I’ve brought a long a few friends,” Kyōraku said, standing up to let Kenpachi Zaraki duck through the door.

“I’ll take him off your hands,” Zaraki boomed. His presence and his voice making several instructors shrink away. “Tossing out an able body is the stupidest waste of resources I’ve ever heard of. Anyway, I need someone to do my paperwork, don’t I, Abarai?”

“Uh, yes, sir,” Renji said.

Captain Aizen stepped in next. For some reason, it was his arrival, rather than Zaraki’s, that made Renji step back. Aizen ducked his head lightly in acknowledgement of all the gathered instructors. His hands were also tucked into the sleeves of his haori. “I would prefer to wait until all his instruction is finished, but I, too, would be willing to provisionally offer Mr. Abarai commission in my unit.”

The biggest shock, however, was the next captain to walk in the door. 

_Byakuya Kuchiki._

He didn’t even look at Renji, but instead said, “If the Academy is unable to discipline this one, I will.”

Renji was pretty sure he’d prefer prison to whatever _that_ entailed.

The combined spiritual pressure of four captains standing the door seemed to have sucked all the air from the cramped and crowded office. In fact, the thing that finally broke the spell of Captain Kuchiki’s last words was the heavy thud of Renji’s reading tutor hitting the floor after he fainted.

#

The argument continued behind closed doors. It was a discussion Renji wasn’t even privy to, and he cooled his heels on a window bench outside of the headmaster’s office waiting on the decision. The secretary, whose office Renji sat in, kept looking up and giving him strange looks—they seemed to alternate between horrified, impressed, and disbelieving.

Renji’s reading tutor sat opposite him, breathing into a paper bag. The rest of the instructors had drifted out into the larger hallway. They seemed to be talking amongst themselves, also hanging around to find out what the outcome would be. Renji looked up when his zanjutsu instructor came rushing into the secretary’s office. Renji stood up respectfully when her eyes locked on him. Her face was flushed, and she shouted up into his face, “Rumors are raging all over campus. Are you being expelled?”

“I don’t know yet, ma’am,” Renji said, glancing over his shoulder at the door. “We’re all waiting to find out.”

She punched him hard. First was a blow to the stomach that made him double over, and the second nearly knocked a tooth out of his jaw. “My best student does not get expelled for fighting, especially not with a sword, do you hear me, Renji Abarai?”

He blinked away the surprise and pain, and, straightening back up, managed to grunt, “Yes, ma’am. But I don’t think that’s up to me anymore.”

Following Renji’s glance at the closed door, the she looked ready to storm the headmaster’s office door.

“You can’t go in there, ma’am,” said the secretary, when her hand actually reached to slide the door open.

She turned her intense glare at him, “Why the hell not?”

“There’re four captains in there, Kotone,” the tutor said, pulling his pale face from the bag. His voice still shook a little as he repeated, “Four.”

“Oh.” She said, her initial fire clearly fading. She put her hands on her narrow hips and blinked up at where Renji was gingerly feeling the bruise forming at his jaw. “Do you even know four captains?”

“Uh, yes, ma’am,” Renji said. “I had an internship over the summer in the Thirteenth.”

“That accounts for one, how did you end up with four?”

“Oh, well, actually Captain Ukitake didn’t come.” Renji said. Not that it surprised him. They’d gotten along well enough, but Renji’s ambitious, striving personality had clashed with the placid, watery personality of the Thirteenth division. Renji scratched behind his ear for a second and then explained, counting each out on his fingers, “Captain Kyōraku is just spooky like this. He always shows up when I need a rescue. He didn’t offer to sign me on, though. I’m beginning to think his division has some kind of secret mission. Anyway, as for the others, uh--well, I guess that Captain Zaraki is here because I helped his people requisition toilet paper once, and Captain Aizen probably came because of that whole thing that happened on the field trip with Hisagi and the others in the elite class.” He stopped to take a breath and shrug. Dropping his hand, he finished, “But I have no idea why Rukia’s… I mean, Captain Kuchiki is here. I think maybe he was offering to kill me personally. I’m not sure.”

The zangetsu instructor’s mouth was hanging open. She seemed to take a moment to compose herself, and then said, “You must be joking. Kuchiki? Zaraki? I know graduates who would give their right arm to be recruited by either one of those captains. In fact, I know you’re pulling my leg. Zaraki doesn’t recruit. Ever. Unless…” Her eyes went wide, and she seemed to be looking him up and down as if trying to read something in his reistsu. “You don’t have shikai already, do you? No, no, of course not. You don’t even have a zanpaktō.”

“Except he does,” said the tutor. “That’s why we’re all here. Apparently, Mr. Abarai can pull his zanpaktō out of nowhere.”

She looked to Renji for confirmation. He nodded, “Yeah.”

Just then the doors opened, and Zaraki and Kuchiki strode out together. People scrambled to give them a wide berth as they moved down the hall. Kyōraku came out next and gave Renji a reassuring tip of the hat as he passed by in a swirl of pink kimono. Aizen and Ōnabara stood together at the door, as the headmaster announced, “It’s been decided that after he’s completed and passed the requisite requirements for graduation from Academy, Renji Abarai will be assigned to the Fifth Division.”

The gathered instructors, even those who had been Renji’s detractors, burst into applause. 

Renji, meanwhile, barely heard the words. He'd been watching the other two captains—Zaraki and Kuchiki-- leave, feeling strangely disappointed and betrayed.

**Author's Note:**

> The end! 
> 
> It's not entirely satisfying, I'm sure, but this seems like a good place to leave our hero, since my presumption is that the rest of Renji's time at Academy goes as canon dictates. I suspect both Kira and Momo are deeply jealous of his assignment, but you can imagine those conversations going however you wish.


End file.
